Hi. Welcome to Epiblast! The name is partly inspired by PZ Myers famous blog, Pharyngula partly by the fact that the epiblast, a simple tissue in a developing embryo (labelled 5), gives rise, eventually, to virtually everything inside our body. It's a metaphor for how some of our simple, fundamental ideas vastly affect the other aspects of our life. This blog covers my interests; usually science, medicine, atheism, religion. I might sneak in a bit of philosophy or magic if I feel like it. I warn you, the discussion gets uncomfortable and I come to conclusions which are unconventional, maybe contradictory to yours. Don't go crying to someone if you are offended.

This is kind of like how newspapers do a lineup of all the things that happened in the past year. This is a long one and it's a kind of written "Catching-up" if I have not seen you in a while. (I've linked to my previous blog posts)

The year (including the academic one) started on a high note as I came back from that awesome two month course at the ashram in India. I was all empowered and everything (read the "Sitting on a Rock" post under my FB notes). I started off very idealistically. The only exposure I had to university life was when I hung out at my sister's college in the US (I didn't attend lessons) and with a group of peers (during pharmacology and anatomy lectures) those were fun moments but not entirely representative.

I spent my last birthday at a cemetery among other things. In October when my Granny passed away, I spent a lot of time reflecting about death and dying, especially how to handle it as a materialist, I read Richard Dawkin's "To be read at my funeral" over and over.

There were a lot of fun things going on in school too. I switched gears to do Medicine from Computer Engineering because I was so awestruck by the wonder of Life. Although the lectures seemed boring and I always felt behind and couldn't catch up with work, in year 2, on hindsight, I learnt a ton of cool things. It almost feels like I have X-ray vision now, because I know how the body is structured and what goes on "under the hood". It's a breath-taking feeling :). Outside academics, I picked up a bit of Muay Thai (but I quit when I damaged my shoulder, outside of class), did salsa, which is still going strong and wrote a few articles (2 to be exact) for the Student Magazine. One of them required us to go to the Red light district and interview a prostitute. I also contributed to a script for a school play which got us best Script for the competition. A lot of action, I'm still getting used to it.

Sometime in December, in fact the exact same day I dislocated my shoulder, my friend, who is a dating coach, invited me for a documentary filming. If you look carefully, you can see me giggling at him from the corner during a mock lecture. I flew off to India a few days after that. That year, was the first time I ventured out of the state of Maharashtra for the first time. I had been up north to the Himalayas earlier in the year and I hit Chennai in December. Both were very eye-opening trips.

Sometime around this time, I made the decision to leave the house and go live in the hostel. It was a big shift as I have never been out on my own. This kind of independence was unprecedented. I imagined it to be a four month long, hedonistic party but, oh well, it was tough at the same time. I had my moments and one of the memorable ones were the pre-exam studying sessions I had with my buddies (the other moments? Shhh).

I started doing a couple of small, adhoc things to Change the World. There was Free Hugs day (you can see my gorgeous friend holding up the sign) coinciding with Valentine's Day. Gunther von Hagen's Body Worlds was also in town so I hit the idea of doing guided tours for various groups of people. I wasn't officially affiliated with any of the organisers (had to pay to get in) so I took the liberty of giving it a philosophical bent of my own. On the last day, no one showed up. I was half tempted to give up but my friend told me that he would be coming by, even if he was late. I started out the tour with just him and me. Slowly, some of the kids next to me started eaves dropping and asking questions. At some point they ask if they can join in (you know what I did, right?) By the end of the exhibition, there is a crowd following me.

I'm planning on doing another Free Hugs soon and this thing called Gandhi Awareness Week. Watch out for it.

Sometime later, our anatomy sessions in the lab were coming to an end. The tutors wanted people to go and share their reflections with the rest of the class. I couldn't help myself. I had been through the whole process and basically shared the bits I had talked about in my Death posts. I thought it would be nice if everyone had thought deeply about their own mortality culminating in their enthusiasm for signing up for a more comprehensive organ donation. I am yet to address this with my parents and do something about it. Nudge me if you will.

As the academic year drew to a close, the self-doubt started piling up. Going through the notes, I started to realise there was way too much to try and remember and the temptation to just give it up was too strong. I was lucky to have friends. And also, being a skeptic (the kind who doubts a lot of things, the supernatural, UFOs ...) I began to doubt my doubts. That helped a lot and I managed to pull through.

The holidays were crazy, but you might already know that. When I got back from the USA, I got ready for a bit of catching up with this "Big Green Organisation" The one where you wear a uniform and be patriotic. Oh, wait, how could I forget .....

I have been averse to commitments since forever and I felt that was preventing me from achieving my potential. When school finally started (last month), there was a day when last year's Class Rep (the awesome guy who made sure the class ran smoothly) asked if anyone wanted to serve for this year. My hand shot up. I got it. I am in the process of doing crazy things and it has not been easy, but it's certainly fun.

There are a lot more things to talk about but my wrist is hurting. A couple of you asked why it says v0.22 on my Facebook profile. It's because I am still a work-in-progress. I hopefully will always be. Every year goes by and although you might not always feel the changes, there is this transformation going on. A couple also asked about my dating life. I'm still single (though I have been upto something ;) ) and in the process of having so much fun, I don't think I'm available for a relationship, but I could change my mind.

Thanks for being on my journey, for the coming year, I hope to up the notch on the adventure, maybe two or three, and if you have not been infected by the spirit of fun, just wait ....